CHAPTER II.
This work may usually be begun in the early years of the grammar school course, as soon as the non-instrumental observations have been satisfactorily completed. The scheme of progressive observations already suggested may be followed to advantage in the instrumental work as well as in the non-instrumental. It is often a good plan to have a different scholar assigned to the task of taking the observations every day, or it may be more advisable to divide the work, making one responsible for the temperature observations, another for the precipitation, etc. It is well to have the daily instrumental weather records written upon the blackboard in the schoolroom, as already suggested in the case of the non-instrumental observations. At the end of each day the blackboard data should be entered in a permanent record book by some one of the scholars, and some ingenuity can be exercised in devising the best scheme for keeping this record. The record book should be carefully preserved in the schoolroom, where it may be referred to by the scholars of future years when any unusually severe storm, or a spell of excessively hot or dry weather, or a remarkable cold wave occurs, in order that comparison with past occurrences of a similar kind may be made. It is well to have the record book of large size, and to have each day’s record entered across two full pages. On the left-hand page the temperature, pressure, rainfall, wind direction and velocity, etc., may be entered, each observation in its proper column, the number of columns being increased according to the increasing number of observations. The right-hand page may be left for “Remarks.” These “Remarks” should include notes of any meteorological phenomena which did not find a place in the columns
reserved for the regular observations, e.g., occurrence of hail, or frozen rain; damage by lightning, winds, or floods; freezing up of rivers or brooks; interruption of railroad or street-car traffic by snow, etc., and, in general, explanatory comments on the weather conditions. Instructive lessons may be taught as to the relation of the local weather conditions which prevail in the vicinity of the school, and those of other portions of the country, by comments on newspaper despatches concerning gales along the coast or on the lakes, and resulting damage to shipping; of snow blockades and stalled trains; of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes; of hot waves and sunstrokes, or of cold waves and the destruction of crops or fruits by the frost. The scholars should be encouraged to bring into the class any comments on such phenomena as may be of interest in the work. Such of these newspaper clippings as are of the most value may be pasted in the space reserved for the “Remarks,” where they may be referred to by succeeding classes; and in this space also may be pasted at the end of each week the barograph and thermograph sheets, if these instruments are in use at the school.